It was a relationship they both benefited from.
“You bought my brother? You swear?” she asked again for the tenth time.
“If she asks me the same question again, I want you to put her to sleep, Kit,” Felix said, ignoring her.
“Eva, he bought your brother,” Kit said, turning her head to face the young girl. “Please don’t make me put you to sleep. I won’t have a choice in the matter. Remember what I said about his power and your power? It doesn’t exist right now.”
Eva shuddered, looking at Felix out of the corner of her eye. “And you’re Augur?”
Kit nodded from the front seat.
“And you’re Mab,” Eva said, turning her head to face the rearview mirror.
Lily glanced up at the girl and then flashed her sparkling white teeth at her. “I am.”
“And you’re Myriad.” Eva’s finger pointed to Andrea, sitting next to her.
“Yep!” Andrea happily said, smiling at her from ear to ear. “I haven’t killed anyone in a long time, and I don’t have to anymore. Felix buys me all the pancake batter I want, and gives me fun things to do, and he lets me sleep in, and I get to build a basement and—” She paused to suck in a deep breath. “He smells awesome. When we get home, you’ll see.”
Andrea leaned in close to Eva and whispered conspiratorially, except her voice carried easily to everyone in the car.
“If you want something from him, all you have to do is phrase it in a way that will benefit him, and how he can’t live without it. Works every time. Watch.”
Andrea sat up and gave Felix a broad smile. “Felix?”
He shook his head looking at Andrea, laughing. “Yes?”
“He heard you,” Eva whispered at Andrea, trying to stop her.
“Can one of my Others sleep in your room tonight? I think it would be good for you to have someone watching over you. Just in case.
“Your life is important and you should have a bodyguard.”
Felix blinked at that and his smile faltered.
His inner paranoia kicked up a notch, and he found himself wondering what could happen at night.
It’s not a bad idea. At all. I could probably use a bodyguard. Not to mention if it is one of Andrea’s Others, it wouldn’t really matter.
“Huh. Sure. That’s not a bad idea, actually.” Felix felt better in agreeing to that. It’d be odd at first, he was sure, but it’d help.
“See?” Andrea whispered to Eva, as loud as she was before. “Now I get to smell him all night long. I just have to make my Other me, and I get it all for nothing.”
“Fuck, it worked,” Lily muttered from the driver’s seat.
“Sure as shit did,” Kit agreed quietly.
“Now wait a—”
Felix was slammed into the door. All around him, the world became as bright as the sun. A fiery red sun.
Time passed in an angry roar and pulse of light.
Eventually, it faded and he found he could think again.
He felt his chest pulling heavily at the seatbelt as his body tried to slide to the car’s roof.
“What… what happened?” Felix asked groggily.
“Someone tried to blow up the car. I think we got hit by a grenade, maybe,” Kit said gruffly.
“Well fuck them. I’ll tear their souls out,” Lily hissed.
Looking around, he realized they were upside down.
He was, at least. So was Eva.
Kit, Lily, and Andrea had already undone their seatbelts and were leaning down, peering out the windows.
Andrea reached up and unclipped his seatbelt, and then Eva’s without turning her head away.
“I count thirty,” Andrea said. All trace of the bubbly, bouncy Beastkin was gone.
“Forty. Ten in the building above us,” Kit corrected.
“One second.” Felix grunted as he righted himself, slithering down to sit on the interior of the car’s roof.
Grunting, he made himself as comfortable as he could.
Pulling up Lily’s power window, he confirmed the upgrade without a thought.
Then, in an afterthought, he called up Lily’s power draw and tried to force it to negative one hundred percent.
To pump more power into her instead of drawing it out.
A second later, and he saw the hash line jump to where he wanted it.
Snorting, he shook his head, then repeated the process for Andrea, Eva, and Kit.
“Right. I reversed the… flow… I guess. You’re now all at twice your original strength. Lily, I also upgraded your power as you requested.
“Andrea, you’re a PMC leader, what’s the play?” Felix asked.
The Beastkin known as Myriad turned her head and stared at him.
It was strange. Clearly, she was Andrea, but not Andrea at the same time.
“You would defer to me?” she asked him.
“I’m not an idiot. I have no military experience. Besides, at this point, I think you could probably make about four hundred of your Others and drown them out by yourself if you wanted.”
Andrea’s mouth turned up at one side. “If I do that, I’ll be defenseless and spent. I normally take hours to summon my Others and get them ready. This’ll hurt. Would you carry me? Even though I’ll slow you down?”
“I suppose I could? But wouldn’t it be easier to have one of your Others carry you?” Felix asked.
Andrea flashed him a sharp-toothed grin. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”
Andrea looked to Lily and Kit.
“Mab, run defense on Felix. We’re fucked if he goes down. Augur, I need you to tell me info on positions, locations, and plans of the enemy. Then update my Others with new info as it comes in.”
Both supers nodded their heads.
Lily lifted a hand and then lowered it again. In front of her body, a rapid series of runes spread out in ever-increasing speed.
Her pretty face became an evil smile as the runes doubled, then quadrupled faster than he could keep up with.
They spread throughout the vehicle and wrapped up around it in a bubble. Then it made a deep thrumming noise and turned from blue to yellow.
“Done,” Lily said, looking to Andrea.
“All forty were sent by one person. They know only the barest details. I think it’s our friend from the restaurant, but I can’t tell,” Kit said. “Most have automatic weapons, a few have sniper rifles. They’re determined to wait and see what happens. Expect no mercy.”
Andrea wrinkled her nose and lifted a hand to play with one of her ears.
“Right. When this is over, I’ll need a buffet of food. Meat, preferably. And lots of spoiling. Looking at you, Felix,” Andrea said. Then she sighed and opened the door. “Stay with Felix, Eva.”
Andrea’s Others began sprinting out of Andrea Prime in droves. She clutched the door as gunfire started to open up all around them. It struck the car, asphalt, everything.
Thankfully, the car was beyond armored, so it had no effect.
Screams and moans were heard as the Others clearly began dying.
Andrea crumpled, the Others still pouring out of her.
“Damnit, Eva, pull her over here. Kit, let’s get the hell out of here. Which way?” Felix asked. Reaching across Eva, he pulled Andrea into his lap.
The Others had to take a few stumbling steps to get free of the car now, but they kept moving.
“West. There’s an alley we can get into and move from there.”
“Lily, you’re on rear watch. Kit, you’re on point. I trust both of you to do what you feel is best. Don’t ask for permission, executive decisions only.”
Felix’s door was already westward facing. Popping open the door, he took a peek outside. Andreas were littering the street and the surrounding area. So was the enemy now, though. Quite a few were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. One Andrea had somehow gotten a hold of a rifle and was keeping the snipers pinned down.
“Eva, help me get Andrea on my back. Lily, how strong is your Glenda impersonation?” Felix grabbed Andrea by a shoulder and started levering her onto his back.
Eva started to help him, pushing the Beastkin up onto him.